Bordeaux   

2009

Bordeaux 2009 promises to be an excellent vintage and is already much anticipated. While growers are reluctant to make comparisons to other great vintages at this stage, they find it hard to hide their excitement. Magnificent weather during the summer and throughout the ripening period allowed the grapes to ripen slowly and to achieve complete ripeness. The weather during the harvest was almost perfect and the grapes entered thechâteaux in a very healthy state. Christian Moueix has described the vintage as one of the most thrilling he has ever experienced.

Though it is still very early to make a judgement about the quality of the wines, the first indications are very promising, especially at Grand Cru level where growers really understand their terroir. These wines have the hallmarks of a great vintage; deep colours, intense flavours and an excellent tannic structure. Not everyone, of course, will have succeeded and there is a risk, lower down the scale, that some wines will have too much alcohol and not enough acidity, but those that controlled yields by green harvesting and were able to pick at precisely the right moment have the potential to make exceptional wines. It won’t be possible to make a full assessment of the vintage until the Union des Grand Crus tastings, just before Easter, when the wine trade descends on Bordeaux. However, it is already very clear that interest in the vintage is strong.

Demand for the first growths is likely to be intense, especially if the Asian market takes an interest in buying Bordeaux en primeur for the first time. Prices will undoubtedly rise and buyers will need to make quick decisions. But if the frenetic 2005 vintage is anything to go by, when the top wines were snapped up almost immediately, it will be worth taking a position on the 2009 vintage.

 

The good news, for those who can’t wait, is that armit has an increasingly wide range of older, mature and affordable vintages, delicious for drinking now. Highlights from the list of recently purchased wines include the following:

Château Potensac 1998 Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel Médoc

£195.00 Price per case In Bond

Owned by the Delon family, this fine Cru Bourgeois property produces consistently excellent wines which benefit from a few years in bottle. The 1998 is a wine of substance and character with attractive sweet black current fruit and an elegant tannic backbone. Delicious for drinking now.

Château Gloria 2005, St Julien

£285.00 Price per case In Bond

Packed with intense, rich, dark fruit flavours with firm but ripe tannins, this wine displays all the character and charm one expects from the 2005 vintage. Drinking superbly well now but will continue to develop in expression over the coming decade. A rare parcel which is outstanding value in our opinion.

Château Langoa Barton 2001 3ème Cru St Julien

£285.00 Price per case In Bond

This wine was delicious when we tasted it at the château with Lilian Barton recently. Full bodied and mature, but with enough depth to keep going for another decade, it has complex, dark red berry characters and firm, broad tannins. A charming Langoa Barton.

 

Interested in 2009? Please register your interest with your usual advisor or e-mail, web@armit.co.uk